SUNY Plattsburgh Presents Daniel Gordon Faculty Recital with Frontier Saxophone Quartet

PLATTSBURGH, NY (03/08/2010)(readMedia)-- SUNY Plattsburgh music faculty member Daniel Gordon will perform with the Frontier Saxophone Quartet, Sunday, March 28, at 2 p.m.in Krinovitz Recital Hall in Hawkins Hall on the SUNY Plattsburgh campus. This event is free and open to the public.

The saxophone quartet consists of Gary Scavone (soprano), Todd Pray (alto), Linda Sullivan (tenor), and Gordon, (baritone). Scavone teaches music technology at McGill University in Montreal; Pray is a music instructor for Peru Central Schools and the director of the Adirondack Youth Orchestra; and Sullivan is the director of the Plattsburgh High School Band and president of the Clinton County Music Educators' Association. The program will feature works by Barry Ulman, Edward MacDowell, Catalan composer Joan Josep Blay, Dutch composer Willem Strietmann, and native New Yorker Arthur Frackenpohl.

Gordon has been a member of the music faculty at SUNY Plattsburgh since 1994. His responsibilities include instructing the saxophone studio, directing the college's Saxophone Ensemble and Symphonic Band, and teaching various music courses in the classroom. Gordon's credits as a saxophonist and conductor include appearances at Alice Tully Hall and Bruno Walter Auditorium at New York City's Lincoln Center, the American Embassy in Paris, the Circle of Fine Arts in Madrid, Pollack and Redpath Halls in Montreal, the Kuhmo Chamber Music Hall in Finland, and several smaller venues in Canada, Finland, France, Italy, Spain, and the United States. During the summers of 1997-1999, he was part of the saxophone teaching corps at the Domaine Forget International Music Festival along with the renowned saxophone virtuoso Jean-Marie Londeix. Gordon had studied with Londeix at the National Conservatory of France in Bordeaux under the auspices of a Fulbright Scholarship. He has also been the saxophone instructor at the Suomen Työväen Musiikkiliitto summer festival in Finland since 2005.

The Frontier Saxophone Quartet, founded in 2003, is a chamber music ensemble comprised of soprano, alto, tenor, and baritone saxophones. Its members are active performers in the North Country and Montreal. The name Frontier reflects the cross-border cooperation that allows their musical collaboration to take place and the group's frequent performances of new works that explore the "musical frontier."

Since its founding, the Frontier Quartet has premiered works by composers Dr. William Pfaff, SUNY Plattsburgh associate professor of music; Dominic Dousa of Texas; and Janne Ikonen of Finland. In addition to new works, the Frontier Quartet's repertory consists of original works and occasional transcriptions for saxophone quartet that exploit the sonorous and blending qualities of this group of instruments.